Orion Montessori School

I feel very fortunate that my son can go to this school. It is definitely a step above some of the others.

Best true Montessori school around. I am so grateful for the respect shown to my children. They come home in a better mood than when I left them in the morning. :) They are calm, happy and full of accomplishment from learning their work in the classroom. Thank you Thank you Thank you

OMS is really amazing school. My son was in the school for 3 years and my daughter for one year. Both love the school and their teachers so much. There is amazing balance between academic study and playing so kids are learning by fun and professional way. The school has amazing family environment so your kids will totally love it once they join the school. The school has gymnastics, french, music and art classes there is also Mandarin and spanish classes. All teachers in OMS loves their work and each child is treated as if he is their own, they truly care and so professional. The CEO and director of operation are amazing, they are doing all they could to make it wonderful environment for the kids, teachers and the parents. If we didn't move to another area, we would never leave the school. I totally recommend it and I am missing the school already.

It has been a truly wonderful journey for my son at Orion Montessori. Orion being his first school, he started in toddler level and recently graduated to primary level.

I strongly believe that Orion Montessori’s vision, their strict adherence to Montessori philosophy and the guidance of caring and qualified teachers, enables my child to master the self-directed challenges at his own pace. Every classroom at Orion is thoughtfully arranged. It conveys a sense of harmony and order which is safe, comforting and inspiring for my child to learn and grow. The result is evident, my son is growing to be independent, he is able to learn and master all activities of his choice, with little or no help.

It is a delight to watch my child, walk in and out of school cheerful everyday. I am happy and proud to be associated with Orion Montessori School.

My daughter started at Orion in the toddler class, and graduated to primary. She has positively thrived under Orion's care. They truly allow each child to develop at their own rate, while encouraging them along the way. The teachers have helped my daughter navigate many critical transitions - from potty training, to the arrival of a new sibling - with grace, and honesty in the best interest of the child.

I will be forever grateful for the Orion experience.

Let me start by the summary: If you care for your kid&#39;s safety, their education, or your own piece of mind, STAY FAR AWAY from this school. This school has been a nightmare for us and so many other parents. If you are interested in the details, keep reading. #1. Safety Earlier this year I learned from parents that were still at Orion that they lost a kid! The police eventually returned the kid unharmed. They apparently told that this was the first time something like this had happened. Unfortunately this had already happened while we were at Orion. That time the school was lucky that some parents were in the parking lot and were able to bring the children back right away. #2. Education While we were there, there were subtle signs that education was not great, but we didn&#39;t know better. We got more materials back from our kids in the first 2 months at the new school than we got in 2 years at Orion. As we switched school, we realized during the assessment that both our kids were quite late on many things. It took over 1 year to have them catch up to the level of their new classmate. The education weakness at Orion was the hardest to gauge. We blamed ourselves for not taking our kids out earlier, but Orion&#39;s lack of transparency made it hard for us to know anything. Teachers at Montessori are supposed to guide your kids for 3 years. Unfortunately, their staff keeps changing so your kids won&#39;t get the stability they need. #3. Piece of mind Orion&#39;s management is working very hard to hide everything from you. There is no transparency whatsoever. If you ask questions, you will often be brushed off in a very arrogant way, and reminded that you know nothing about education and montessori. We have had so many arguments with the school, even sometimes just for asking simple questions. Some examples: - The first red flag was during the initial school visit before enrollment. I asked Shriee (head of school) about sibling discounts which I believe was mentioned on their website. The answer I got was to first register and then &#34;we&#39;ll see what we can do&#34;. After we enrolled, we met some other new parents. To our surprise/disbelief, we all realized that the tuition price was different for each family! - A few months after we enrolled and paid the school tuition, Shriee sent us the registration paperwork. To our surprise, tuition had been raised (+$100/10.2% more for 5 half days, $230/+15% more for the 5 full days). We complained and her answer was that in the agreement it said that school policy/price change can occur with 30 day notice. I have never heard of schools changing the price between the enrollment and the start of the school year. We felt completely cheated at that point, doubting if we should leave the school. By then of course, most schools had already finished their enrollment, and so we didn&#39;t have too much choice than to stay. Unfortunately, this behavior was aligned with pretty much the whole management at Orion. The second year, we had similar tuition cost surprises and again had to fight for them to do what they had initially said. Every time it was just draining us mentally. - The first week of our second year, Orion had a conference with the parents for upper elementary. To everybody&#39;s shock, they had decided to change the program by sending our kids to Watsonville every Friday by bus, and that we should be paying an extra $420 a month (a 24% increase!). If we would not agree to this, our kid could stay in the library every Friday without any teacher. As you can imagine, almost every parent was mad and angry at how the school was once again doing their thing in our backs and trying to get more money in dishonest ways. Another family and us always fought against these behaviors. Shriee probably knew that we would not react well to this. She told the other family that if we (the 2 families) were to accept the new program without a fuss, they would waive the extra $420 for us. WHAT??? Is that even legal? Anyway, we were angry and with the other parents wrote a petition to show our discontentment and that we would not agree to such a thing. Eventually the school had to back down. That day, we decided we would leave the school. At the end of that school year (2020), if I remember well, about half the kids from upper elementary also left. Best decision we ever took for our kids and ourselves. As parents we always want the best for our kids. My kids seemed happy at Orion with their friends so we ignored all the red flags. I have been regretting not having switched after the first year. The new school has been the exact opposite. Great teachers and education, transparency, a community encouraged by the school. My kids are very happy but more importantly they are also learning a lot. And above all, we found peace of mind again. These 2 years at Orion brought so much stress to our family, it took over a year to get over it and get our kids at the same level as the other kids in their new school.

OMS is really amazing school. My son was in the school for 3 years and my daughter for one year. Both love the school and their teachers so much. There is amazing balance between academic study and playing so kids are learning by fun and professional way. The school has amazing family environment so your kids will totally love it once they join the school. The school has gymnastics, french, music and art classes there is also Mandarin and spanish classes. All teachers in OMS loves their work and each child is treated as if he is their own, they truly care and so professional. The CEO and director of operation are amazing, they are doing all they could to make it wonderful environment for the kids, teachers and the parents. If we didn&#39;t move to another area, we would never leave the school. I totally recommend it and I am missing the school already.

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